Decorating my Outdoor Space At Walmart for #WalmartFrugalHeroes

Some days when I open my email I cringe, it feels like I’m repeatedly offered to review products that just don’t fit my family at all. Well last week I received an email which had me excited at first glance. Walmart Canada approached me and inquired if I’d like to participate in their Frugal Heroes Challenge.

What…what ever could this mean? I had to reread the email a few times before I actually believed that I was being asked to shop at Walmart. Yes, it was true! Walmart had challenged me to join in on the first-ever Frugal Heroes Challenge. Walmart was calling on Canadian shoppers across Canada to set a goal and make the most $100 gift card.

What would I shop for? The girls don’t need summer clothing, nor do I or my husband….the house doesn’t really need anything…then it hit me, with the warmer weather coming we would be spending most of our time outside. I decided to decorate our back deck with the $100 Walmart gift certificate.

I worried that Walmart may not have stocked their Garden centre yet so I went into our local Walmart in Orangeville, Ontario to take a look. Thankfully they had some of their summer stock out and I began to get ideas and compile a list.

Waiting for May 2nd to roll around wasn’t easy, as you may have guessed I’m a bit impatient and with the beautiful weather I was eager to get my outdoor decorating going. Finally the time came and my husband, myself and our little friend Charlotte who was with us for the day headed to Walmart.

Our backyard has a pool and we spend most of our time out there in the spring and summer. Last year we purchased a new patio set from Walmart after price shopping for some time. What was missing was greenery and flowers so first stop was the Garden centre where I compared pricing of potting soils.

This is a money-saving tip I’ve learned over the years of garden planters: Each year I save my pots at the end of the year and replant them instead of buying pre-potted arrangements. In the photo above you can see my soil of choice is $6.97 but on the right it’s more than double the size for $12.97 which means I save $1!

For my $100 we needed 2 carts and filled them quickly, in fact my larger sized SUV was just large enough for everything I purchased.

Once I got home we got to work. I took 2 of the 4 hanging baskets I’d purchased for $8.00, 3 spikes I paid $2 for, some soil and made some hanging planters and 1 potted piece. Usually I’d pay about $20 for each of these simply because of the maturity of the plants so this is a frugal way to get some attractive planters.

We hung two of the planters on that blahhh wall and placed the others around the deck, added a fern I got at Walmart and voila, there was colour!

I also bought some supplies for on the table, there were a bunch of patterns and colours to choose from but in the end I adored this blue and green look which compliments the pool and the patio set cushions.

This challenge wasn’t simple, normally I would have blown through $100 with very few items to show for it. By being aware that I only had that amount, I found I was able to fully decorate my deck in a way I’m happy with.

Thanks to Walmart for the challenge, I can honestly say that I’ll be more aware when I’m shopping in the future….oh and this must have gotten my husband in the summer mood because he began opening the pool this morning!

Disclosure: I was provided with a $100 gift card to complete this challenge but all opinions are my own.